Bonis and Acocella Help Barlow Softball Clinch Berth In State Tournament

The Barlow softball team is guaranteed of returning to the state tournament after defeating homestanding New Milford 6-1 in an SWC contest Friday afternoon.

Morgan Bonis threw a one-hitter and Katherine Acocella went 3 for-4 with three runs scored for the Falcons, who snapped  a three-game losing streak and improved to 8-5.

Bonis, who upped her record to 4-2, lowered her team-leading to 1.20 while Acocella is pacing the offense with a .410 batting average.  Both players rank highly in the overall SWC statistics.

Barlow's bats and defense were struggling of late, but everything came together Friday in a total team effort on as the program's rebuilding effort took another major step forward. The Falcons (6-5 in the SWC) banged out 10 hits and committed no errors against the Green Wave.

Barlow's Sarah McAniff contributed a 2-for-3 performance with an RBI and run scored while playing solid defense at shortstop. The Falcons were strong up the middle as Olivia Ventricelli complemented McAniff with consistent play at second.

Now that Barlow has qualified for the states, the Falcons will focus on the SWC race as they hope to make the league playoffs for the first time since 1998. 

That effort resumes with a big game at perennial SWC power Brookfield on Monday afternoon. Head coach Kristen Fallo understands the task ahead.

"(Friday) was a big win for the team, but we have a lot of work still ahead," the first-year coach said.